New Hyde Park, N.Y.-based Northwell could continue to add dental services throughout its network as the health system looks to enhance holistic patient care.
Northwell recently acquired Distinctive Dental Services of New York in Great Neck and the office of Leonard Patella, DDS, in Garden City. Both practices were rebranded as Northwell Health Physician Partners Dental Medicine locations. The acquisitions bring the health system to seven outpatient dental practices in its network.
The deals come after Northwell launched a strategic partnership with ProHEALTH Dental in August to expand dental care in New York.
The acquisitions are a continuation of Northwell's mission to provide holistic care and also expand its ambulatory services, according to David Hirsch, MD, DDS, senior vice president of dental medicine at Northwell.
Dr. Hirsch recently spoke with Becker's to discuss Northwell's dental initiatives and the importance of medical-dental integrated care.
Editor's note: Responses were lightly edited for clarity and length.
Question: Why was Northwell interested in acquiring these two dental practices?
Dr. David Hirsch: It gives us an opportunity to treat the patients in our local communities in a private practice-type setting as opposed to a clinic. We've been offering dental medicine services in our hospitals for quite some time, but this new ambulatory strategy is a little different. We're trying to keep up with the quickly growing Northwell ambulatory practices. So our strategy is to both grow our hospital programs but also a strong ambulatory network in all locations where Northwell is a provider.
[These] were community practices that we felt had very similar visions for their practice. So for instance, they are very busy practices serving the community. They have great providers who have strong links to the community and then, lastly, they both are very high quality and I think all of those things mesh very well with our mission.
The hospitals are saturated, so to outsource some of these [services] to smaller locations is just a benefit for patients that they don't have to go wait in long lines or wait exorbitant amounts of time to get an appointment in a hospital setting. These smaller practices that are strategically placed allow us to treat patients in an efficient manner.
Q: What other dental-related initiatives does Northwell have planned?
DH: We're going to continue to expand strategically in Northwell service areas where we think we could benefit the community at large. Northwell has 21 hospitals and I'd like to make sure we have a strong dental medicine department in all of them. We don't have dental medicine departments in a couple of them, so what I expect is that we're going to expand into those hospitals and provide the services that the hospitals need, and that all is happening now.
Q: Are health system executives starting to realize the link between oral health and overall health?
DH: Absolutely. Every patient that has a valve replacement from cardiac surgery needs a clean mouth, otherwise they risk the valve being infected. Every patient that has an organ transplant needs clearance from dental medicine so you don't reject that. Anybody who's going to have a radiation treatment to the head and neck needs clearance from dental medicine. Almost every service in the hospital needs a dental medicine team. Without that, what happens is a patient goes for a transplant or is going to have a valve placed and they're scrambling to try and get the patient to some private dental clinic that can be difficult to get them to and can be very costly. So it's part of the holistic strategy by Northwell, that we can provide the services in an efficient manner so that overall health can be better.
Q: Many other organizations, including DSOs and investment firms, see the benefit of investing in dentistry. Do you think hospitals see a big return on investment with dentistry as well?
DH: Yeah, obviously with the DSOs, they see the value in buying practices. We see the value in buying practices, but our mission is to treat patients with the highest quality care. I think it probably is a good investment for hospitals in that it's another source of income, but the main reason to do it is to provide quality care in the communities we serve. Can it be profitable? The answer is yet to be seen, but I think so, yes.